Services Australia workers are gearing up for a 24-hour strike next week, leaving many Australians wondering about the impact on Centrelink payments and services. The strike, scheduled for Monday, October 9, is a response to a government pay rise offer that...
A member recently asked us how long it is reasonable to wait for a response from Centrelink. That’s not an easy question to answer. The short answer is, ‘it depends’. The longer answer is equally complicated, as it still depends on many different aspects of...
The good news this week is that all Age Pension payment and threshold changes are now live. So you can use our Age Pension Eligibility Calculator to check your new payments or eligibility status immediately. And there are two other important changes which...
The expected 20 September Age Pension changes have now been confirmed by Services Australia, the government department responsible for indexation of the Age Pension every March and September. We reported a couple of weeks ago that we expected these changes...
Nearly three-quarters of Australian retirees will receive a ‘pay rise’ on 20 September when the Age Pension is next indexed. This indexation occurs twice a year, on 20 March and 20 September. It is the method by which the payment rates of the Age Pension are...
The end August release of the 2023 Intergenerational Report (IGR) was met with extensive media coverage. And at the conclusion of the launch of this report, Treasurer Jim Chalmers stated that the decumulation phase of retirement will be his next major focus....
How can you make the most of your home in retirement? Last week we looked at the ways homeowners can maximise their retirement income by using this very valuable asset. Our focus was on those who plan to stay put in their ‘forever’ homes. This week we...
We all put things off. And most of us are aware that the longer we do, the harder it is to get started. Call it human nature, if you like, but it’s frightening how hard it is to gather motivation to do things we know will be useful and necessary at...
Should you stay or go?And what are the implications? If you are a homeowner, you have many different ways to use your family home to help fund your retirement. The first major fork in the road is the decision whether you will ultimately stay in your current...